The Pied Piper of Hamelin

The Pied Piper of Hamelin, in full The Pied Piper of Hamelin, a Child’s Story, narrative poem of 303 lines by Robert Browning, published in 1842 in Dramatic Lyrics, part of the Bells and Pomegranates series. The poem, one of Browning’s best-known works, relates the classic legend of the town of Hamelin and its burghers, who, desperate to rid the town of the rats that are overrunning it, engage the mysterious pied piper to lure the town’s vermin to their death in the river. When the townspeople are unwilling to pay the piper for his services, he lures their children away by the same means.

The Pied Piper of HamelinIllustration by Kate Greenaway from the 1888 edition of Robert Browning's The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1899).Rare Book and Special Collections/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.